My Dad's Aunt used to make a simple sugar cookie and on the top of each one would be a perfect unbroken meat out of a Hickory nut. I remember as kids my sister and I would go with her to the woods and pick up buckets and buckets of Hickory nuts. We would bring them up to the house and she would lay them out on screen frames set up on sawhorses to air dry. Then we would help shell off the outer husks and they would be placed back on the screens to dry again. During the winter she would crack the dried shells open and remove the inner meats completely unbroken. She had jar after jar of perfect whole hickory nut meats in the freezer that she used to put on top of her sugar cookies. Unfortunately I never learned the secret of getting them out unbroken.

Thanks for reminding me of these wonderful memories of childhood and simpler times.